It is not the technique that is weak, it is either the way it is taught by the instructor, or the way it is learned by the student. It is weaknesses in these two areas that result in any system getting "watered down".
From what I understand the main head founder of TKD(a south korean) tried to teach North Koreans the TKD as well to keep the cultures from diverging too much. He tried to make TKD a Korean martial art, not a south korean art. This angered the south korean government and he was kicked off the TKD governing body. The south korean government's TKD governing body is WTF. The head founder created another organization under himself and that's the ITF. WTF tried to create import itself as a global martial art and pumped out as many teachers as they can to the overseas with that goal in mind. This ended up watering down the art. Also they tried to sportify themselves to secure an Olympic spot to farther the globalization. This created the all light kicks and no blocking sparring style you see in TKD.
I think ITF has kept more in tune with the original TKD. I know they spar in rounds like kick boxing as well as spar in points. But ITF suffers from being smaller organization and I don't think it has the ability to keep all of the dojang's quality and teaching in line.
But this is all from hearsays. I have been out of the style for the longest time and just keep in tabs when the topic comes up now and then.
I would imagine it looked something not unlike this:
There is a video called "the Early Masters of Taekwondo". It is basically old black and white home movies taken of the early TKD parctitioners. It's mostly forms (ITF) but there is also some demostration of breaking and sparring training. The quality of the film is poor but it's and interesting DVD to have in you collection.
http://www.amazon.com/Early-Masters-Tae-...
My master is still very original luckily. One can compare it like original karate with more kicks per se.
In fact, it does has a mixture of Japanese as well as korean martial arts in there. It may have developed from karate, but I have not done enough research to know for a fact.
I'm curious what the martial art of Taekwondo was like when it was in its purest form, during the time it was created. I know that over the years it has become very watered down, with organizations like ATA the WTF misrepresenting it. And also when it comes to TKD it's either Olympic or traditional, however Olympic has become so common that I see it as the current "traditional" version of Taekwondo since even more branches/styles/organizations are deviating from it. So I'd just like to know what the practical version of Taekwondo was like, if anyone here is a practitioner or has been around long enough to have witnessed the older form the martial art. And to be more specific, did the original Taekwondo have techniques like the spinning hook kick and back kick/spinning back kick? Because tkd nowadays is known as a flashy martial art and the spinning versions of the kicks are what contributed to that label. Another thing I'd like to know is if Taekwondo is not the most effective martial art, then why is it trained in the Korean military? Simply because of nationality?
